For the next five days, I will be blogging from the top floor of the University of Wyoming library while attending the 2012 Technology Boot Camp. Participants can follow the workshop on the Twitter hashtag #uwtbc2012. This workshop comes out of a partnership between the Ellbogen Center for Teaching and Learning and the UW Outreach School.
The schedule revolves around five major themes: communication, information management, engagement, multimedia, and adult learning. Each day will have three to four sessions with two work/discussion sessions. I will write about each session, so stay tuned.
Setting Goals for the Boot Camp
Christi Boggs is opening the session with thanks to all the organizers. An instructor who wanted to come to Laramie to learn everything she needed to know inspired this boot camp. Christi explained we are going to have you drink from a firehouse. The goal is to make your head spin. We want you to select a couple of things and focus on those things for your instruction. The instructors will receive our support over the next few months. We are here to learn about new ways to engage with students.
Putting Learning Before Technology
Meg Skinner points out that our overall goal is to help learners learn better. It is not simply a matter of adding technology to improve learning. Technology is a tool to be leveraged with sound instructional principles. Teaching is about establishing a relationship with others in the classrooms. It is important to step out of our comfort zone and step into the comfort zone of our learners. Meg showed the video clip, Medieval helpdesk.
Christi shows a video called A Vision of Students Today.
Learning Together and Choosing Tools
Through the introductions, we have gathered a fascinating group of instructors who want to improve their instruction. Interesting reasons the faculty have given for coming to this boot camp. There was a good point brought out during introductions. Just because you can use technology does not mean that you should. Lots of discussion about relationship building in education. Christi points out that the goal of this workshop is not about the technology but about using the right tool. You must be willing to try.
Great opening, more to come.
Additional Reading
- Learning How to Capture Your Screen
- Game On!
- A Rundown of Apple’s iBooks and iTunes
- What’s Right About Copyright?
- Looking at Feedback Strategies on Written Work
- What Are Our Web Conferencing Options?
- How to Use Google Apps in the Classroom
- Some Advice on Holding Online Office Hours
- How to Get the Most of Online Discussions in Education
- Using Blogs and Wikis in the Classroom
- Assistive Technology and Accessible Instructional Materials
- Every Day People Are Giving Bad Presentations
- Adding Sound to Your Instruction
- Did You Know That You Can Poll Everywhere?
- The Virtual Edge Reboot
- From the Student Perspective: Engagement in Online Elearning
